We’re not being taught to deal with the world as is it is. He talks about needing personalized instruction and content that’s tailored to each students’ specific needs, interests and weaknesses. In the interview, Tupac criticizes the average school curricula for being irrelevant and unsuccessful in preparing students for the real world. Tupac’s perspective on education is surprising in its depth and relevance to the current state of affairs in education across the globe. Today, nearly twenty years after his death, some of the insights he had about education are still relevant. As a child, Tupac moved from New York to Baltimore to Marin County, CA, and thus experienced a wide array of educational institutions from general public to private arts schools. In the video, we can see the beginnings of a cultural activist taking root, and despite varying opinions of Tupac Shakur overall, no one can deny his relevance as a cultural figure throughout the 1990s. In 1988, at the age of 17 and three years before the release of his first album, Tupac Shakur spoke about his view of education on camera. But how often are students themselves intricately involved in redesigning their own education? Often as education professionals, we look to elaborate plans, curricula designs, and infrastructure changes to augment learning outcomes for students.
Sometimes the most relevant insights come from unlikely sources.